


You can't raise hell with a saint

by Alana



Category: Naruto
Genre: Almost Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Pre-Canon, konoha needs grief counseling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21638410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alana/pseuds/Alana
Summary: When he last went to school, he was seven, and they hadn't taught them how to kill yet. He isn't sure they would teach him now.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17
Collections: 300bpm Flash Exchange November 2019





	You can't raise hell with a saint

**Author's Note:**

  * For [catsinouterspace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsinouterspace/gifts).



Sasuke is eight years old and he is not at school.

He thinks he should be. He thinks he should be at school, and becoming stronger, and learning how to fight-- but when he last went to school, he was seven, and they hadn't taught them how to kill yet. He isn't sure they would teach him now, even though he's older than Itachi had been when--

He needs to start catching up.

Instead, he's trying to buy food. When they were about to let him out, the Hokage had told him, "I'll set up an allowance for you, drawing from your family's funds," but Sasuke hasn't bought food before, and he didn't realize how much it cost, the fresh fruits and vegetables and meltingly delicious fish and cuts of pork with white rinds of fat, and he's standing there with a basket and his wallet and trying to count it all up in his head, and then remembers he doesn't know how to cook any of it.

His mother always said that she didn't need help, and would pet his hair, and let him go play and practice throwing his knives.

Clenching his fits to keep them from shaking, he takes a deep breath, then another, then a bag of rice and puts it in his basket; behind him, the store's bell rings. He picks up a pack of ration bars. They were Itachi's favorite flavor, wrapped in seaweed, he'd seen him put them in his pack a hundred times before going out on missions. He puts them back, and reaches for a packet of nori instead.

His hand brushes the hand of the kid standing next to him, and he jolts, jumps away, heart pounding. Snuck up on--

The other kid jumps, too, and says, "Hey, what's your problem?" and gives Sasuke a funny look; then they both recognize each other, and his expression brightens a little, like he's happy to see Sasuke. "Hey! You're in my class! You shop here too?"

"I-- no," Sasuke says, and looks at his basket, empty of everything but rice.

The blond gives him a bemused look, and shrugs, and says, "Where have you been, yo? You haven't been in class all week!"

Sasuke's heart shatters in his chest, and suddenly he hates this blond idiot, who always made too much noise and never paid attention, and who doesn't know that Sasuke's family is _dead_ and will always be dead and _Sasuke is alone now_ and how can he act like the world hasn't ended? How can he stand there like Sasuke's mother and father aren't dead? How can he-- how can he--

Sasuke hiccups, and realizes he's crying, and the idiot from his class is staring at him wide-eyed, and Sasuke hates his face and throws the basket at him and _runs_.

\--

His stomach hurts, and his eyes hurt, and his chest hurts, and he feels, a little, like he's dying.

The idiot from his class shows up, peering down the alleyway he's hiding in so no one can see him.

"Go away!" he says, but his voice is wet and the hatred he has for the idiot just sounds like misery, and the other kid doesn't go away because he didn't do it right. "Go _away_ ," he tries again, except a sob breaks out of him, and his shoulders shake, and the idiot doesn't go away at all.

"Um," he says instead, and comes closer. He asks, his own voice wobbly, "Are you okay?"

Sasuke would tell him yes, he is, he's fine, so the idiot can go away now, except he doesn't think he can breathe and he can barely see and the next thing he knows, the idiot from his class has scooted up next to him and is awkwardly patting his back, like Iruka-sensei does when someone in class is crying, and it's stupid and the kid is an idiot and Sasuke hates him but he can't find his voice to tell him so. So the kid keeps doing it, and Sasuke keeps not telling him off, until his lungs hurt and his face burns and his eyes have stopped squeezing out tears.

"Go away," he croaks, and the kid hesitates next to him; he looks up, and sees that there's a stubborn look on the idiot's face, lips pursed and cheeks puffed and eyes narrowed. "Go away!" he says.

"Did someone hurt you?" the kid asks, "I don't want to go to class either when someone's hit me a lot or stolen my money or taken my food, but if you tell Iruka-sensei he'll tell them to fuck off." He nods, seriously, and Sasuke stares at him, because no one's ever done any of those things to him-- "Do you wanna know what always makes me feel better?"

"No," Sasuke says, but his voice is fading, and he shrugs a shoulder a little, and wipes at his face. "... Maybe...."

\--

When they're nearly to the little booth the idiot had been aiming for, he says, belatedly, "My name's Naruto," which Sasuke probably should have known. They'd been in a class together for nearly two years, but he'd never thought about the dumb students in his class. Half of them had already dropped out by now. Why learn their names?

"... Sasuke," he says, softly, and lets Naruto tug him along, their fingers linked together.

Naruto grins at him, and then turns forward and yells, "Hey! Occhan! I need two bowls of ramen!"

Sasuke does feel better when his stomach is filled with hot food; it hurts in a hollow way when the man recognizes the fan on his shirt and refuses to take payment, but Naruto doesn't even notice, especially when the ramen-maker says, cheerfully, "It's just nice to see you making friends, Naruto!"

He's not Naruto's friend, he wants to say, but the idiot is beaming and awkwardly bumps their shoulders together, as if maybe they could be?, so Sasuke doesn't say anything at all.

\--

"Do you want to go prank someone?" Naruto asks. His head bowed conspiratorially towards Sasuke's, his blue eyes alight as their bangs brush against each other, and Sasuke shrugs. He's never done a prank before, and his head kind of hurts, but he doesn't think Naruto will take no for an answer.

"Great!" he says, and bounces on his toes, "let's go mess with the old man!"

His stomach clenches, because Naruto keeps mentioning people, _occhan_ and _old man_ \-- how is it fair, that this idiot still has family, when Sasuke doesn't? But Naruto has already grabbed his hand, pulling him along and grinning, clearly happy to have a partner in crime, no matter how hollowed out that partner feels.

His stomach clenches again when he realizes that they're approaching the Hokage's tower, where they'd kept him over his birthday, and asked him question after question about Itachi, about his family, always reminding him that he was the only witness, the only one left--

"Come on!" Naruto says, and ducks around to a side of the tower not facing the road, giggling as he pulls a paint can out from behind some unassuming crates. "I'm thinking... flowers all over the office! What do you think?"

"Um," Sasuke says.

"We're aiming forrrr THAT window right there," Naruto adds, pointing with a paintbrush he's pulled out of hiding, and Sasuke squints at it.

"Okay," he says, and Naruto hands him the paintbrush; then he gets another one out of hiding, clenches it and the paint can's handle between his teeth, and starts climbing the side of the tower, giggling. He moves like he's done it a hundred times before, makes it look easy, effortless.

Halfway up, Sasuke is panting, his arms are shaking, and he's nearly dropped the paintbrush five times.

Naruto, peering down at him and hanging onto the wall with one hand while he holds the paint with his other, asks,"Yo! You need any help?"

He gasps, "No," and hauls himself up to the next handhold. He's not going to let this idiot from his class, with his dumb face and his big smile and his _family_ , beat him. He's an Uchiha-- he needs to be strong-- he has to become stronger-- if he can't even climb a wall, how can he--

It doesn't get easier, but he makes it, up to where Naruto waits for him, perched on the windowsill. "About time!" Naruto says, and Sasuke wants to snarl at him, but he doesn't have breath. "Okay, you take the right side, and I'll take the left," he directs, and hauls the window open, hopping inside and prying the paint can open.

Sasuke follows him in, and doubles over to catch his breath, arms quivering as he wraps them over his hurting stomach. 

"Oh man! Imagine the old man's face when he sees this!" Naruto crows, and Sasuke finally looks up and around, and realizes they're in the Hokage's office.

"... We can't be in here!" he gasps.

As he backpedals towards the window. Naruto turns from where he's painting a giant, lopsided daisy across the Hokage's desk, and squints at him. "Well, yeah, it's not a very good prank if I do it where I'm supposed to be," he says, and points at the paint bucket. "Come on, Sasuke, start painting! We've gotta be done before he comes back from his boring stuff!"

"But--" -- but the idiot doesn't care, doesn't pay Sasuke any more mind besides rolling his eyes (and smiling, he's been smiling so much), and Sasuke tentatively steps forward. "Won't we get in trouble?"

"Being yelled at is worth it," Naruto says, confidently.

"What about the ANBU? Won't they stop you?"

Naruto looks at him like he's said something stupid, which stings, kind of, but not that badly. "The who? Come oooon!"

He gapes at him, then glances out the window, heart pounding in his ears, then... takes a few tentative steps closer, and dips his brush into the paint can. "This is okay?"

In response, Naruto grabs his hand, and pushes the brush into the middle of his daisy; he drags Sasuke's barely-resisting hand around, and when he lifts it, he and Sasuke have made a big smile in the center of the flower.

"Now you've already done it! So you might as well keep doing it," Naruto says, and laughs, and Sasuke's head and heart and stomach and arms hurt, but he thinks he'll help Naruto anyways. Maybe he'll do even better than Naruto. Maybe he can--

He almost feels like smiling when he tells Naruto, soft and hoarse, "I bet I can paint more than you," dips his brush again, and turns starts scrawling flowers on the wall.

Naruto shouts, and dunks his brush, and hurries to paint the opposite wall, bright yellow flowers blooming up as high as their arms can reach.

\--

He's right, that being yelled at is worth it, because Naruto is grinning and laughing the entire time, and has his arm linked with Sasuke's as the Hokage chews them out; with the idiot at his side, Sasuke almost feels okay.


End file.
